Life
Did you know that each year graduate students from every UC campus travel to Sacramento to school lawmakers about the importance of graduate research? Meet this year's advocates: JV Decemvirale, Ph.D. student in Contemporary Art, and Alana Ayasse, Ph.D. student in Geography.
Funding for graduate research is under threat. While the benefits of graduate âresearch may seem obvious to grad students, our elected representatives in Sacramento still have their doubts. Like one of our demanding advisors, they ask us to prove it to them-each year.
Lucky for us, we have two great graduate students who will meet with local legislators âand advocate for the support of UC graduate research while the rest of us sit back and hit the local microbreweries.
This year JV Decemvirale, Ph.D. student in Contemporary Art, and Aâlana Aâyasse, Ph.D. student in Geography, will work on our behalf. Together with Graduate Division Dean Carol Genetti âthey will âimpress upon lawmakers the benefits of their (and our) research at the âninth annual Graduate Research Advocacy Day on Wednesday, âMarch 21.
JV Decemvirale
JV Decemvirale plans to inform legislators about his research project Knowing Your Place and Making Do: Radical Arts Organizing in Black and Latino Los Angeles. His project investigates a constellation of arts organizations founded and managed by people of color in Los Angeles.
JV, who is from Los Angeles, was inspired to pursue this research âbecause "Los Angeles itself is not typically included in the larger art historical narratives and people of color are not really highlighted or privileged within that discourse, so I feel a sense of responsibility to my city to collect and share those stories."
As part of âhis advocacy, âJV's goal is "to highlight a few of these stories and emphasize the special role the UC can play in preserving California's local creative practices."
Alana Ayasse
Aâlana Aâyasse will âdetail her project on remote sensing technologies to study methane emissions in California. Methane ânot only smells bad but is also responsible for air pollution and global warming.
âAlana explained âher motivation to advocate was to remind policymakers about the important role graduate students play in maintaining the premier education and research produced by the UC system.
She also hopes to "impress upon lawmakers the importance of creating policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
Learn More
Watch the videos below to learn more about âJV and âAlana and their research advocacy mission.